Youths of Eket, Esit Eket, Ibeno, Udung Uko, Mbo and Oron Local Councils of Akwa Ibom have threatened to stop next year’s elections in their domains in anger over the abandonement of the 55.1km Ibom Superhighway project.
The youths said they were disappointed that Governor Udom Emmanuel has abandoned the project 6 years he performed the groundbreaking.
They complained that the government orchestrated the destruction of houses, farmlands and economic trees in the affected communities just to pave way for the project and has not paid any compensation to persons whose buildings and farmlands were destroyed.
Recall that contract for the 6-lanes Ibom Superhighway project was awarded by the state government to Ebla Construction Company Ltd in 2017 on a Public Private Partnership arrangement (PPP) but the company was never mobilized to start work.
The youths, who carried placards with various inscriptions during the protest, blocked Ebla Construction Company Ltd from evacuating it’s equipment from its site yard in Ibeno.
Some of the placards read, ‘there will be no elections if this project is not continued in the host communities of Eket, Ibeno, Esit Eket, Mbo, Udung Uko and Oron’, ‘abandonment of projects keeps host communities in starvation’.
Others were ‘the abandoned project was to service Ibom Deep seaport’, ‘we need our right compensations for crops and buildings, ‘please government should tell us our position in this state’.
They warned Governor Emmanuel, the former commissioner for works, Akparawa Ephraim Inyang-eyen and aspirants seeking election in 2023 not to come for campaigns in their local government areas, failing which there will be catastrophe.
A youth activist by in Esit Urua, Comrade Francis Itiet said, “since I was born I have never seen the number of abandoned projects scattered everywhere in the state.
“We receive the highest federal allocation and the wealth of the state comes from this axis but we haven’t been well treated by the Udom Emmanuel administration.
“The Eket-Ibeno road has abandoned likewise the Ibom Superhighway project despite destroying our buildings and farmlands which our parents use in sponsoring our education.
“Now the company is moving away it’s equipment because it has not been mobilized. We won’t allow this company evacuate its equipment.
“And we are sounding a strong warning to Governor Udom Emmanuel and others aspirants not to come for campaigns in Eket, Mbo, Udung Uko, Esit Eket, Ibeno and Oron because there will dire consequences if they do”.
